You're motorin'. Yes...I am

Road trip time again!  Actually, I left home yesterday.  I drove six hours to Spokane, WA where I attended a wedding.  A very nice wedding!  The best I've ever been to, although I've only gone to two others in my life.  The nuptials took place at The Historic Davenport Hotel, which is an impressive place indeed.

Today was the first official day of my road trip.  I left Spokane and headed east, driving all morning till I reached the town of Deer Lodge, MT.  I was there to visit the Old Prison Museum complex.  First off, I toured the Old Montana Prison, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.  Established in 1871, it housed prisoners until the late 1970s.  The walls of the prison were built from rocks shaped by the inmates themselves.

I walked through the administration building and main cell block, where they had nice displays and examples of different prison cells.  Here's the warden's office and a solitary confinement cell.

After peering into one of the solitary confinement cells, I turned around to look at the one opposite of it and what you see here scared the hell out of me!  I guess I thought it was a person...or maybe something else?  I had prison ghosts on my mind and I wasn't prepared to see something like this!

In 1959, there was a riot at the prison that cost the lives of a guard and two inmates.  The National Guard stormed the prison, firing a bazooka at the cell block.  You can still see evidence of that on the outside of the building.

The Old Prison Museum complex also houses the Montana Auto Museum.  There are over 150 cars on display, from turn of the century models to classic muscle cars.

 

 

My last museum visited was the Frontier Museum, just a short walk across the street from the prison.  This museum showcases Western memorabilia, including over 300 handguns and rifles, cowboy and Native American artifacts, and even a display of Buffalo Bill Cody items.

It rained a bit this morning, and the forecast is for more rain for the next couple of days.  Not the best conditions to visit Yellowstone National Park, but I won't let it dampen my enthusiasm.  I'm ready to see the geysers!